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Show Successful Dairy Herd Depends On Expertise Beating the odds at Las Vegas, Nev. is largely a matter of luck. Beating the odds in dairy farming, however, depends a lot more on expertise than on luck. That's the opinion of Joe Hill, a veteran dairyman at Kaysville, Utah, who traces much of his expertise to his 31 years of experience in both farming and dairying. Joe Hill is a rather distinctive dairy farmer . because he grows all the corn silage he feeds (200 acres of it), his biggest single component in his feed ration is corn silage and his corn silage yields per acre and milk production figures are significantly higher than both the local and stale averages. Hills' 290 Holstein milkers averaged 16,011 pounds of milk and 589 pounds of butterfat last lactation compared to the state average of-15,450 pounds of milk and 533 pounds of butterfat. Hills' silage yields averaged 25 to 27 tons per acre compared to 19 to 20 tons per acre for Davis i County and 15 to 17 tons per acre for the state. Hill believes the corn variety planted, Funk's G-4574, was largely responsible for his above average yields. Hill feeds corn silage the entire year. His milking herd is divided into two classes. Top milkers receive a daily ration of 24 pounds of corn silage, 18 pounds of alfalfa and 28 pounds of grain concentrate. The second string receive 30 pounds of corn silage, 22 pounds of alfalfa and 16 pounds of grain concentrate. Although Hill stresses the importance of effective weed control and proper fertilizing in silage corn production he also pays close attention to all facets of production from seed bed preparation through harvesting. Hills' seed bed preparation is extremely simple: he plows twice with a culti-packer, harrows once and then seeds. Hill usually plants from April 25 through May 1 and harvests the first part of September. His planting population of 28,000 seeds last season produced 27,000 plants at harvest time. His row width was 32 inches. Last season Hill provided a preplant herbicide and a fertilizer application which included 125 pounds of nitrogen and 100 pounds of phosphate per acre. "But this year," Hill explained, "we plan on applying the fertilizer both as a preplant and also following emergence. Applying some of the fertilizer when the plants are about 3-feet tall should provide better utilization of the fertilizer." Hill irrigates every 12 days, starting when the plants are 1 foot tall about five weeks after planting. During the season he irrigates on an average of five times. Hill credits G-4574 as "a major contributor" to his better than average corn silage yields and milk production. Here is how he evaluates this variety's most outstanding agronomic traits: first, top yield potential; second, high grain content; third, excellent standability; fourth, desirable maturity and fifth, wide adaptation to local growing conditions. |